Digital Discoveries
Jarred Walton, senior editor, and Alan Dexter, executive editor, tell us about their top tech tips of today
GOPRO HERO6 BLACK
GoPro’s latest Hero6 Black takes everything you love about GoPro and ups the ante. It can do 4K60, 1440p120, and 1080p240, all with the excellent image quality and versatility we’ve come to expect. This is thanks to the new GP1 processor, which also adds HEVC support, improving image quality with better colors and dynamic range, and less noise.
The Hero6 has waterproofing to 10m, and mount and accessory compatibility that includes everything you’d need. Its compact size allows it to go places other cameras can’t, including drones, helmets, and more. For the perfect way to capture your sweet aerial moves, look no further. Improved 5GHz Wi-Fi also enables faster uploads.
There are a few caveats. First, battery life is short, so take a spare battery or three if you’re planning on a lengthier session. The digital image stabilization also isn’t quite as good as optical image stabilization, so a good grip or clip is highly recommended.
If you don’t need the higher resolutions and frame rates, the Hero5 Black is more affordable, but if you want the best action camera this side of 2019, you’re unlikely to beat the Hero6. Just make sure you have a PC that can handle the demands of HEVC. $500, www.gopro.com
FCIV UTILITY
I’ve been sniffing around cryptocurrency mining again. Mainly out of curiosity, but also to see if it’s worth doing. I found myself looking at NiceHash ( www. nicehash.com), with its promise of a simple interface and support for all the main mining algorithms. You do get paid in Bitcoins, regardless of what you’re mining, but as a simple solution, it’s got a lot going for it.
You may have noticed that NiceHash isn’t my “pick,” though, and that’s because after downloading the NiceHash utility, I did something I don’t do enough. I decided to make sure that the file I downloaded was indeed the one that the originator intended. I verified the checksum. There are plenty of stories of installers being replaced on reputable sites, and malicious software finding its way into our systems.
Windows 10 ships with a tool for checking a file’s checksum, called certutil, and you run it from the command prompt. However, there’s another Microsoft tool called FCIV, or the File Certificate Integrity Checker, which is a bit easier to use. Download it from http://bit.ly/2BvfQKQ, then check the MD5 checksum with “fciv -md5 < filename>.” Just make sure the checksum you’re comparing it to hasn’t been compromised as well. Free, www.microsoft.com